macOS User and Device Management for the Cloud-Forward Enterprise

The office environment has evolved. More than ever, users want simplicity and immediate access to the resources they need to accomplish their work. In today’s session, Greg Keller, chief product officer at JumpCloud, discussed the modern office and the power behind Jamf and JumpCloud’s integration – a move that satisfied a complete and secure device and user management solution.

Keller began by looking back in time, when things were simple. He reminisced of the years of large, clunky, yet reliable Microsoft computers. “Your environment was predicated on immobility. It was physically impossible to pickup your machine,” he said.

Fast forward a handful of years to an increase in complexity. “MacBooks were born. They were great at accessing WiFi. As a result, on premise became stressed. With SaaS, you could move away from server rooms. And, with SaaS, you could remove the majority of thick client apps. SaaS was the money shot and changed the game,” Keller said. “You didn’t need to install software anymore.”

But, Macs were (and are) not immune to security vulnerabilities. In fact, there are challenges with securing Mac endpoints. Some of those challenges include:

System administrators don’t have the same visibility with Mac OS X as Windows systems.

Macs don’t have decades of enterprise culture built into their development.

It is difficult to achieve centralized management on Mac.

These challenge were the very reasons JumpCloud was born. JumpCloud moves identity services to the cloud. Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD) is the most popular tool for authenticating users. As a competitor to Active Directory, JumpCloud provides a similar service, but does so via the cloud.

Keller ended the session explaining how Jamf and JumpCloud work together. “JumpCloud is the jelly to Jamf’s peanut butter.” Jamf is all things management for the Mac. JumpCloud can then tie a user to a Mac through their directory service. This means a user can get onto WiFi and all other things they should through unique credentials.